Despite all my culinary prowess...

I am at heart, Amelia Bedelia!

Did you know that there are multiple ways to ruin Jello?

I, like Thomas Edison, now know a thousand ways to not make Jello... (I think the quote went differently, but you get the general idea!)

In one night I rendered two packets of Jello, useless!
I was making the big boxes of Jello-- the kind that take 4 hours to set up, and because I didn't plan enough ahead, I felt the need to start the Jello at a friends house during a playdate so it could begin set up there, and then continue the process at home. What I didn't take into consideration was the ride home with a bowl full of not-very-firm Jello sloshing around my backseat. And when I got home, it looked like there had been a homicide (cherry flavor!). There was no Jello still in the bowl. It would have made a perfect scene for a movie (you can picture the detectives approaching the scene of carnage and blood, only to have a young upstart dip his finger down and taste it, only to realize that the missing victim had either been killed with Jello, or some mom had had a really stupid idea!)

So when I got home, I decided to try again with a new box of Jello. Only this time I had considerably less time so I decided to put the Jello in the freezer to speed up the setting time. Jello, was not meant to be frozen. Stubbornly, I still maintained that the Jello was edible-- even though it was watery and of a strange consistency. I ate that whole bowl on my own (I also don't like to waste money).

You just can't cut corners on some things.

which brings me to my next tale:

Yesterday I made Richard some pizza dough. I was so excited about making dough. I have in fact gotten a little cocky about my pizza making skills. So I made dough at a friends house, and then when I got home I was afraid that the dough wasn't warm enough to really rise, so I put it in the oven, turned on the oven (intending to turn off the oven in a minute), and then guess what......FORGOT I put it in the oven until a nice round bowl of pizza crust started baking itself away to pizza land.

*sigh*

it keeps me humble.

Sweetheart Dance! (yes you can feel like a newlywed again)

On the eve of Valentines Day, my good friend and I achieved the impossible: we gave couples a chance to remember why they originally fell in love by putting together an elegant dinner and dance and providing on site babysitting so that they could have a few hours of child-free romance.
I don't really want to think about how many hours went into planning and executing this thing, but let me tell you...IT WAS WORTH IT!

Thanks to the help of some good friends, we were able to decorate a plain Relief Society room so that it resembled something a little more worthy of a romantic night out.
It was fun to dress up and look pretty for my husband and to wear a flower in my hair.

Monica and Jeremy broke a cardinal rule by reminding us that we actually did have children somewhere in the building (a fact that was surprising easy to forget for a few hours)

our longest married couple was Richard and Julienne Dance. Their kids didn't need babysitting though...
because their kids were right there at the dinner dance too! WE love making romance a family affair!


and you never know when your goblet pyramid building skill will be tested
We played my own version of the Newlywed game, and the winners went home with a Starbucks gift-card and two movie passes. Turns out I couldn't remember the name of the first movie that Richard and I went to as a couple.
the dance was awesome! We only danced for an hour, but I think we could have gone on for another two hours or more. No one wanted to leave (drat those kids' bed times!).
and we had a dessert bar complete with a chocolate fountain (not pictured-- it wasn't dressed yet)
It was better than even the best high school dance! And the best part-- dancing with someone you truly loved and who truly loved you back (something I can't claim for any of the high school dances I ever went to).
we danced...
and we danced...
and we smooched...
and we danced some more!
but EVERYONE busted out their best moves. I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of dancing talent we had in the room!

The best compliment we got was when one couple came up to us at the end of the evening and told us that they had forgotten what it was like to be newly in love, and that this dance reminded them of the first precious months of their relationship-- you know, when your stomach still flutters when you look at each other.
I felt the same way. I think every couple needs these moments whether they have been married one year or fifty years.
And if you have to create those moments yourself, then so be it!
what a wonderful night!

Second generation dress

In my momma's Christmas package to Anna, she included a very special dress that was once worn by a very special, exceptionally beautiful, incredibly talented, one of a kind girl named Rachael...

and which is now being worn by a very special, exceptionally beautiful, incredibly talented, one of a kind girl named Anna.

If I had a photo of myself we could have had a "who wore it best?" competition.

but my vote would be on Anna!

The Food of Love

How does a Rachael say "I love you" to a Richard?

Through food, obviously!

Restaurants are terribly overrated (or maybe I would just like to believe that because I don't go to them often), so Richard and I usually make the living room carpet our cafe with me as the executive chef! After many sleepless nights of mentally considering and rejecting different menu options, I arrived on what I considered the perfect meal for my hubby.

Our starters included fresh cut mango, Italian stuffed mushrooms, and prosciutto wrapped asparagus

our main course was shrimp and white bean hummus flatbread pizzas
a third course of fruit and cheeses
and to finish...a purely decadent chocolate, peanut butter mousse cake
Richard bestowed upon the meal the coveted "best meal I have ever eaten in my life" title!

and that is how a Rachael tells a Richard that she loves him!!

Better late than never!

we got these pictures taken about 6 months ago, just after Anna turned a year old. We were in Utah again for a few days and I couldn't resist having our good friend Alli take some photos for us. Alli was a wizard because Anna was not having a good day. She was rudely woken up from her nap (Anna, not Alli) and we had to woo (or coerce) her with some graham crackers to be any sort of compliant. If we had lived a hundred years ago when family portraits took a long sitting to complete, we would have had nothing to document her existence. Luckily, cameras can capture millisecond moments.

This picture shows the reality that Anna is the true head of the household...

a rare laughing Anna moment. Mommy chasing you never fails to please.
pretty much the best picture that has ever been taken of Richard and I. He is so HOT!!
and this is my favorite photo of the whole shoot! That "smitten" look that Richard gets whenever he holds Anna just melts my heart. These two people are my whole world!!

I am Anna's favorite. I can't help it-- mommy rules! Until Richard gets home...
we are reading "the very hungry caterpillar"-- a classic!
she still had not yet learned to walk! Now I kind of long for those days...
she is our little explorer!
these pictures belong in a beautiful gallery, I think. But for now, I will have to be content with our little basement apartment
Anna deserves palaces and tiaras and a huge room filled with dolls and cars and miniature houses and millions of puzzles and stuffed animals...
we try to make our world as big as we can for her. Until we can afford a silver platter...we will hand her the world on heavy duty plastic or maybe ceramic.

and that is our family! We love us!!

Ode to Groundhogs Day

Groundhog, groundhog do you see your shadow?
Oh please, let spring begin right now--
I'm ready, I'm ready!
Out with the puffer suits,
in with the swimming suits;
Gone are the days when the sun hides its face!
(no one sees their shadow in Seattle anyway)